A considerable amount of the residential buildings in Northern China, especially those constructed before 2000, require a very high supply of heating energy over the winter, but still fail to provide good heating conditions due to the buildings’ inadequate thermal insulation. The required heating energy amounts to about 40 percent of the added energy consumption of all residential buildings in the nation.

Converting XPS foam production from F-gases to climate-friendly CO2 technology

China’s rapid economic development has led to a boom in construction. The need for building insulation materials – such as extruded polystyrene (XPS) (a synthetic rigid foam) – is rising by approximately 40 per cent each year. The XPS sector in China consists of around 500 small and medium-sized enterprises.

Energy efficiency in existing buildings

Almost all residential buildings constructed in China before 2000 lack external thermal insulation which leads to massive heat energy losses. The resulting low indoor temperatures, especially during the winter months, negatively affect the residents’ productivity and even threaten their health. At the time of the project, China had only limited knowledge of how to retrofit buildings in order to improve their energy efficiency.

Energy efficiency in public buildings

Due to China’s fast economic development and the resulting increase in energy demand, the country has surpassed every other nation in terms of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, accelerating climate change significantly. Over the course of this development, China has been severely experienced the consequences, such as draughts, floods, extreme weather or the rise of the sea level.

Low carbon development in Jiangsu Province and selected cities

Promoting energy efficiency is a key component of China’s energy and climate policy. As part of its 12th Five Year Plan, the Chinese Central Government has set the goal of reducing energy consumption per unit of gross domestic product by 16 percent from 2010 to 2015 and to cut greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 17 percent. Furthermore, China is aiming for a reduction in GHG emissions of 40 to 45 percent by 2020.

Manufacture of room air conditioners using hydrocarbons as a replacement for halogenated refrigerants

Still today, most room air-conditioning systems worldwide contain HCFC-22 as refrigerant. In China, with 260 million tonnes of CO2-equivalent emissions per year, they are the main source of ozone- and climate damaging HCFC-emissions. The air-conditioning sector is a fast growing sector in China with a huge impact on the global market as the majority of the world market is produced here.

Sustainable urban development programme

The volume and pace of urban growth in China makes this country the de facto world leader in city construction for years to come. Through new construction and city renewal, an urban area comparable in size to the area of all existing cities in North America and Western Europe combined is likely to be built in China over the next 40 years. This scale of city-building will have a global effect on climate change, the environment and building material markets.

Qualification of Key Actors on Energy Efficiency in the Building Sector

Around 30 percent of the national primary energy consumption in China is consumed by buildings. More energy efficiency in this sector and cities as a whole leads to a considerable reduction of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The project on “Qualification of Key Actors on Energy Efficiency in the Building Sector”, or simply KABEE project, aims to support China’s path towards a low carbon urban development by providing key actors in Chinese cities with German know-how and experiences through training.